Reflections on the contemporary church, culture, Christian philosophy and doctrine.

Monday, January 17, 2005

Vox Apologia I

I want to thank everyone for their entries! This is a great response for our initial offering.

Enjoy reading and engaging! I hope to get a chance to read all of these in the next couple of days and get to commenting and interacting myself.

Here are the submissions in no particular order:

Lenni at XBIP give us "Apologetics Is Absolutely Essential."
Summary: Apologetics is absolutely essential to the Christian church today. Pastors need to use it to show the congreation Christ. More importantly, each believer must know how to defend the Faith.

Rich Poupard at Imago-Dei gives us "What does apologetics mean to today’s Christian church?”
Summary: I believe that apologetics has a necessary but not sufficient role to play in today's church. It is necessary in order to combat the cultural forces that continually provide challenges to the Christian worldview, and should be looked at as a spiritual discipline like prayer and fasting. However, apologetics can only be effective if we continually study and apply to truths of Scripture, as well as allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

Ed Heckman at The Greatest Pursuits gives us "Apologetics: Agreeable Debates"
Summary:My post began life as a quick reference to an article by Thomas Sowell where he bemoaned the increase of ad hominem attacks in public discourse and pointed out that rational, logical discourse with a focus on facts and the pursuit of truth during a disagreement leads to the betterment of everyone involved. From there, it careened on into the fact that Jesus used logic and facts in his disagreements with the scribes, then pointing out that knowledge is required for such discourse, that apologetics is studying to acquire such knowledge, and finishing with the conclusion that Christianity cannot accomplish its primary mission of sharing the good news without the use of apologetics.

Joshua Whipps at Razors Kiss gives us "Apologetic Apologists, or Defenders of Truth?"

Jeff Burke at firstPete315 gives us "Some Color Among the Gray."
Summary: In the post, I discuss that we as Christians are all apologists...that we bear the same burden and responsibility to prepare our hearts and minds and ultimately that we are willing to share them joyfully with others.

Rusty Lopez at New Covenant gives us "Apologetics as experience...;"Summary: I briefly (very briefly) examine how our Christian faith is rooted in reason, which should complement the emotional aspect of our faith.

Catez at Allthings2All gives us "Post Modernism and Christianity."
Summary: Does Christianity outdo post-modernism? This post says yes, and shows not only that post-modernism is a derivative of Christianity, but that Christianity has always answered the questions post-modernism raises.

Dory at Wittenberg Gate gives us "Apologetics Benefits for Believers."
Summary: We usually take up the study of apologetics for evangelistic purposes. However, in the process of learning to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ, the believer is also blessed and sanctified.